A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you can think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding...As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has spent more than a couple of minutes in my company (or has read some of this blog) that I loved the annual return to school. Covering my books with sticky plastic, buying new pens and pencils, flicking through the crisp white pages of my textbooks and notebooks, selecting a couple of special items - a new pencil case/notebook/folder. The idea of starting fresh is one I relish. By the time I hit November each year, my textbooks were spotted with tea, notebooks had become progressively messier towards the back, and all my best pens had been nicked. But the start of the school year was full of promise.

Despite all of this back-to-school joy happening in January in Australia, I have still awoken on 01 September every year thinking (hoping?) I'm late for my train from Platform 9 and 3/4. As soon as I moved to London, I embraced September as the 'true' start of the school year - the coming of the autumn and the cooler evenings fit well with the imagined childhood I had at Hogwarts. And so, as September approached this year, I couldn't imagine a better supper club to host than one where I recreated Harry's first evening at Hogwarts.

The Hogwarts ExpressPumpkin pasty‘Starving,’ said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.---The Great HallRoast Chicken, Roasted Potatoes, Grilled Carrots, Pea and Mint Salad and GravyHe had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs.---After DinnerTreacle Tart with Rosemary and Sea Salt Ice-CreamAs Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.---Gryffindor Common RoomChocolate FrogHarry felt in the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, the very last one from the box Hermione had given him for Christmas. He gave it to Neville…

This treacle tart was the very first recipe I posted on the blog, some 18 months ago. I stand by the original recipe - it's simple and delicious and is just as good without the lattice on top (why faff unnecessarily?). The additional detail in the line before: the many varied ice-cream flavours gave me license to think up something new. This sweet/savoury ice-cream is just glorious, and cuts through the cloying sweetness of the golden syrup.

1. Place the milk and cream in the saucepan. Bring almost to the boil over a low heat. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the golden caster sugar until light and creamy.

2. Once the milk and cream are just under boiling point, pour it over the yolks, whisking constantly so that the yolks don't cook. Wash out the saucepan, then pour the custard into it. Add the rosemary and cook while stirring over a very low heat until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. If you're worried about it splitting, keep a sink full of cold water at the ready, and plunge the pan in to cool down if you think the mixture might be curdling. I find that keeping the heat low and stirring continuously works well in preventing this.

3. Once the custard is thick, add the salt, then strain it into a large bowl to remove the rosemary. Press a layer of cling film onto the surface of it (which prevents it forming a skin) and allow to cool completely.

4. Once cooled, pour the custard into the ice-cream maker and freeze according to the machine instructions. Alternatively, pour into a freezer-proof container and freeze for two hours. Once partially set, remove from freezer, beat until smooth with the hand whisk and return to the freezer for another hour. Repeat for three hours and then freeze overnight. Serve with treacle tart. Or with a honey cake. Or on its own, with a spoon.

Optional extraI served this ice-cream on some finely blitzed rosemary and sea salt praline. To make this, melt 150g sugar in 30ml water in a small saucepan, then boil until the mixture turns a deep golden. While the caramel is cooking, put some a large pinch of sea salt and a couple of sprigs of rosemary needles onto a sheet of greaseproof paper, then pour the caramel over the top once it's ready. Allow to cool and harden, then blitz to a fine powder in a food processor.